My Favorite CEO: Marissa Mayer

A favorite CEO is tough to pick, there are so many things to consider – leadership style, inspirational potential, vision, effectiveness, kindness, ideas . . .

When I really sat down and pondered it, though, I kept find myself returning to Yahoo’s relatively recent CEO, Marissa Mayer. What speaks to me about her is not her qualifications or her technical ideas (though those are certainly of value), but rather her approach to the people and the culture of her company.

In a recent interview, she said that, “Yahoo has a strong culture…I wanted to find a way to amplify it. That is how you find the energy. You can harness that into innovation and say if we have people and they are excited about what they’re working on every day…you can take that energy around culture and find fun ways to apply it to engage users.”

I love that she recognizes the importance of culture and of energy. Even the most skillful worker is useless (or at least greatly hindered) if he or she isn’t personally invested in the tasks at hand.

I hope to learn a lesson from Miss Mayer’s priorities, and hopefully apply some of her approaches one day in my own career!